VILLAGERS rallied round at the weekend to help a community centre rise from the ashes of an arson attack.

A car boot sale was held at fire-damaged Fencehouses Community Centre to help raise much-needed funds following the recent vandal blitz.

Intruders broke windows to gain access to the premises, in Woodstone Village, near Chester-le-Street, during the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Once inside, they ran amok, setting up to eight fires, which badly damaged the interior of the building, in Lumley New Road.

The building would probably have been completely destroyed if it had not been for the fitted fire alarms which woke caretaker Don Harris, who has a flat at the premises.

A former firefighter, he tried to tackle the blaze, but, amid thick smoke he had to alert the emergency services.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus doused the flames and used pressure ventilation fans to rid the rooms of smoke.

Mr Harris said: "There's an integrated alarm system and you get a shock when it goes off, but you get up.

"I could see there was a fire in the hall, and outside there was somebody trying to pinch something from my car, but he ran off."

Mr Harris said that when he checked after the fire, nothing appeared to have been stolen, but it appears that whoever was responsible was making a concerted attempt to set the building alight.

Damage was caused to property within the centre, including a notice board, a vase full of plastic flowers and the stage curtains, although it was limited as the curtains are flame-proof.

The fire service confirmed there were up to eight different seats of fire, causing substantial internal damage to the building.

Mr Harris said: "It's just lucky we had the fire alarms, or the whole place could have been destroyed."

He added that the thriving premises was used by many community groups and the race is now on to have the building back in a reasonable shape in time for a wedding party later this month.